Latest issue of magazine 'Reader's Digest' banned
Latest issue of magazine 'Reader's Digest' banned
JAKARTA (JP): The government has barred local newsstands from
selling the latest edition of Reader's Digest, which alleges
widespread human rights violations in East Timor.
Subscribers, however, will have the magazine delivered as
usual, according to N.V. Indoprom, the magazine's sole agent in
Indonesia.
Spokesperson for the Attorney General's Office, Pontas
Pasaribu, told The Jakarta Post he had been informed of the ban
by the Ministry of Information.
Pasaribu, however, declined to say why the government slapped
a ban on this month's issue of the magazine, which has a
circulation of 12,000 in Indonesia. He said the authority to
control circulation of news media lies with the Ministry of
Information.
No officials from the Ministry of Information were available
for comment yesterday.
The Reader's Digest featured East Timor Roman Catholic Bishop
Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, who alleged that abuses of human
rights in the former Portuguese colony are widespread.
Titled Hero for a Forgotten People, the six-page story written
by Paul Raffaele alleges that the East Timorese people have been
"stalked by terror" ever since the territory became part of
Indonesia in 1976.
Public relations manager for the Asian edition of the Reader's
Digest, J. Elizabeth Dingwall, told the Post by phone from Hong
Kong yesterday that Indoprom had informed her office of the
"limited" ban.
"Reader's Digest's March edition is only delivered to
subscribers. Newsstand distribution is banned," she said, adding
that the monthly has 2,353 subscribers in Indonesia.
She said that the Hong Kong office has not received formal
notice from the Indonesian government on the ban and that she
could only guess why the Indonesian government took the measure.
"Probably it is because of the nature of one of the articles
published in the March edition," she said.
Benayani S. of Indoprom's customers service department said
she had no idea of why the magazine has been barred from
newsstands.
"I don't know. Please ask the Ministry of Information," she
told the Post. (imn)